[...]The UN doesn't solve problems, it manages them in perpetuity; it turns them into Les Mis rables come back two decades later and it's still running. Even without the corruption and drugs and child-sex rings, it's not an impressive record. Any German contemplating the Palestinian "refugee camps" now celebrating their golden jubilee ought to be grateful his country enjoys the straightforward benefits of victors' justice. Or to put it in the only image the BBC and The New York Times apparently understand: the UN guarantees quagmire.


Bush understands this. To gauge the limits of his administration's patience, listen to its most famous moderate.


"We didn't take on this huge burden with our coalition partners not to be able to have significant, dominating control over how it unfolds in the future" Colin Powell told Congress last week.[...]